Assessing engineering apprentices during the lock-down

Taff Crofts and Chris Matthews, Apprenticeship Assessors and Internal Quality Assurers for Babcock International, Marine Training, work as part of a team to assess 1,200 Royal Navy Marine Engineering apprentices every year.

Based at HMS Sultan in Gosport, the Royal Navy’s main engineering training school, Taff and his colleagues would normally visit and review apprentices’ work in person. Before the current lockdown, Taff and Chris would criss-cross the country, visit Royal Navy dockyards, ships and submarines off the UK and around the world to assess the practical work of engineering trainees. Their face to face reviews of the individual’s competence would lead to signing off their assessments and issuing their final apprenticeship certificate.

Now, working from home, the picture is somewhat different. Visits are postponed, apprenticeships are suspended but Taff and Chris are making efforts to review the apprentices’ competences through the journal they complete with its nine tasks and three write-ups of 1,000 words each.

_{Taff Crofts working from home}

Taff explains,

“Although I can’t do the face-to-face visits and the reviews in person on ship, what I can do is scrutinise the quality and detail of the tasks the apprentices write up.  This different approach has been working much better than I had imagined, and I have already seen several apprentices complete in the last two weeks since I have been working remotely.”

Taff is personally in touch with around 600 apprentices, and he is able to, with the close support of Chris over email, check their progress and see photographs taken from the tasks they have completed. “It takes a little longer, but we are still operating and supporting the apprentices to progress.”

Taff and Chris, both EngTech registered, are committed to the development of RN engineers, and Taff as a former Chief Petty Officer himself, expects a high level of commitment and performance from all the Royal Navy apprentices he assesses. He encourages all of them to apply for professional registration as EngTech once they complete their apprenticeship, and is a great advocate for getting involved with a professional engineering institution and taking ownership of your own development.


_{Gosport and Fareham lifeboat}

In his spare time Taff is part of an independent lifeboat crew operating out of Gosport. He explained,

“We have been the busiest lifeboat station on the Solent, with one of the best boats which is fitted with the latest technology, extending her capabilities and decreasing response times. She has the latest in radar and navigation technology and VHF direction finding device. She is fitted with two 2 x Yanmar 8LV, 4.42-litre turbo diesel V8s producing 320hp each. Driving 2 x Hamilton waterjets via an electrically controlled reversible gearbox”.


_{Taff Crofts delivering supplies} 

But times are quieter now at the lifeboat station during the current Coronavirus crisis, and Taff is one of the volunteer mobile team using the crew’s Land Rover to deliver essential food parcels and medicines to vulnerable people in the area,

“It’s really opened my eyes, So many people are in need and anything we can do to bring a smile and some much-needed supplies to them is worth-while.”